Hobby #22 – Comic Books! I am a pretty big Comic Book fan. Meaning I actually buy comic books. Regardless weather or not you buy comic books you are more than likely familiar with the more popular superheros. Batman, Iron Man, Green Lateran, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, X-men, etc. But there is one superhero EVERYONE has heard of. Arguably the most recognized superhero in the world: Superman. Yes the man from krypton who has the iconic Red cape and blue tights. Everyone knows superman. But do you really like superman? I don’t mean if he is you’re favorite superhero or anything, I mean… Don’t you find yourself despising him just a little, if not a whole lot? The following are 4 Reasons Why You Subconsciously Hate Superman.

When you see all the powers lined up like this, you quickly realize this list of powers is ridiculous. AND this isn’t even the whole list. He has many obscure abilities he only uses once or twice because for some reason the other 12 didn’t cut it (Such as being able to reverse the rotation of the Earth thus turning back time it’s self… because we all know the flow of time depends on the earth turning clockwise.) You’d think the creator would have thought around 4 powers “that’s enough.” Nope. He kept piling them on. You subconsciously hate superman, because reminds you of “that guy” in middle school who could do anything you could do, but better. That person even was naturally talented at things which took you years to even be called “intermediate”. He reminds you of all the people whoever had a skill better than you. Com’mon Superman, don’t be that guy.

3. You Find His Weaknesses Equally As Absurd. A little green metal from Superman’s home planet known as Kryptonite is the only known weakness to the Man of Steel. However his weakness was not created from the beginning. Superman became a comic back in 1939. Kyptonite was not introduced into the comics as his weakness until 1949 – 10 years later! They finally realized its not very entertaining to watch a godlike character beat up the common thug with 12 unstoppable powers.

2. People Should Fear Him, but meh… Now if I lived in a city where a freakishly strong alien lived who can hear injustice happening from a mile away, I would think twice about robbing someone… Forget robbing people, I’d be nervous to jaywalk! But no. Crime continues, some would argue it has gotten worse since Superman’s arrival to Metropolis. There is never any mention of a long history of Super Villains before Superman came. Sure there was crime, but no “mad scientists” trying to blow up the city to get to superman. But even with all those limitless superpowers, his main downfall is our number 1 Reason why you Subconsciously Hate Superman.

1. You’re Annoyed He Doesn’t Know How to Close the Deal. He is an awful, awful fighter. Think about it. 12 amazing powers. Why does it take several comics, or a whole episode for him to beat someone? Most of the times Superman gets smacked around like someone who stole food from a pregnant woman, (Its okay, I can say that. My wife is pregnant). But really, if you’ve ever read a comic, watched a movie, or the cartoon. All superman knows how to do is get completely owned by his opponent the entire time. He is the king of getting trashed and looking a hot mess by the end of the comic. That might be fine if you’re any other superhero. But come on “Man of Steel” way to have the most ridiculous godlike powers among all superheros and still find new ways to have your face shoved in the mud. GET BETTER!

Welcome again to my hobby blog. This post is about hobby #4, photography. And what would have happened if I gave up. Let me explain:

I’m new to photography. Just got a Nikon D3100 which is like an intro level pro camera. I didn’t know much about photography, I just knew I liked taking pictures. Some day I’m going to take a class to get better. But here was my dream, to head into Washington DC just before Sunrise and take some amazingly sunning shots of the monuments as the sky was brilliant with color. I did ton’s of research for which shots I wanted to take so I didn’t wast my time walking around downtown. But then I ran into a problem. It is illegal to park ANYWHERE in downtown DC before 8 o’clock. I got there around 5:30 to be ready for the 6:20.

Before I knew it the sun was starting to come up and I missed a wonderful sunrise on this particular Saturday morning. So out of pure frustration (didn’t want to leave empty handed) I took a quick (and poor) snapshot of the Washington Monument from my car. I was bummed BEYOND belief. So I began the long drive home. By the time I got back to Gaithersburg (suburb 40 minutes outside of Washington.) I thought to myself, “You know what, yes you could go home and pout. Or you could make the best use of the time you have and just take pictures of something else.” And that exactly what I did. I pulled off to a lake not far from my house and began to walk around and set up some pictures.

Just look at what I would have missed out on! I really love this picture because it took me so long to set up this shot with my tripod. To find a spot where it looked like you were emerging from the forest with a pretty clean view of this dock as the sun was rising. I used some filter to up bring out the color. This was a really fun shot to set up. Or check out this next picture. This is while I was on the dock starring toward the sun.

I took probably 30 different pictures of this shot right here before I got one I really liked. This looks good in color, but simply stunning in Black and White. Notice how clear the rays of the sun are shining down on the misty lake. See that water on the dock? I added that lol. I thought it would help break up the textures a little bit. This was a very fun shot to create. A lot of people feel a lot of different emotions from this particular shot. For me it reminds me of summer camp, just before a stampede of kids would be able to to disturb the peace of the water.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

I took many shots, but these are my two favorites. See what I would have missed out on if I gave up after my “Plan” didn’t work out? But isn’t that life anyway? We make our plans but ultimately we have to go where the road takes us? So next time life gives you a detour, why fight it kicking and screaming? Just go with it, because you never know what’s right around the corner, or in my case, in your own backyard!

What detours has life given you that resulted in an unexpected surprise? LEAVE A COMMENT! I’d love to hear!

The economy is rough right now. Everyone is looking to save a buck here or there. I would like to share with you how my wife and I save between 20 – 100 dollars a month depending on your bill. My wife and I never had a TV subscription when we first got married due to being broke as a joke. Now we don’t need or ever want a TV subscription. Here is why

Nothing is EVER on. You’ve been there. Sitting down, flicking between shows. You spend maybe 5 – 10 minutes cycling through 200 channels and somehow nothing is on. You finally find something but it is the end of the show, am I right? Then the search begins all over again. Before you know it, two hours has gone by and you haven’t really watched a full episode of anything. So you’re paying between 40 – 120 dollars a month for the dish, or cable just so that you can work around the networks schedules? That’s not the world we live in anymore. AND THE COMMERCIALS! Think about it for a moment. You’re paying 40 – 120 dollars a month to watch TV and you STILL have to watch 10 minutes of commercials for every 20 minutes of show time? Lets not forget all the hidden state fees, box fees, satellite fees, etc. Think about it.

Streaming is The Future of Home Entertainment. My wife and I have a online subscription to Netflix & Hulu. Netflix is more for the movie side of things where as Hulu is more for the TV side of things. My wife and I watch all of our favorite shows on our schedule. For 9 bucks for Netflix & 8 bucks for Hulu, we get significantly more content than anyone with a dish or cable has. And we can watch all these shows “on demand”. Doesn’t matter if we are at work, on the road, at home, if you have a device that can connect to the internet, it can connect to these two services. The main downside is we can’t watch anything live, but here was the biggest revelation for us: We were never home or remembered to watch ANYTHING live.

Kids can use the technology. I know a 3 year old who knows how to get on netflix, look up Thomas the Tank engine and watch episode after episode it. This will be how our children watch entertainment in the future.

But what about Football? Baseball? Local News!? National News! Get a 25 dollar digital antenna and you should be able to get all the local channels if you just have to hear the local news while your cooking dinner or getting ready in the morning. This will also fix the sports problems as well. As for national news, all the major networks, Foxnews.com, CNN.com, Msnbc.com provide video segments of their shows from that day on their website. A special tip of my hat to MSNBC.com because they will actually put the ENTIRE show on the web broken up in segments. The other networks haven’t jumped on board to this just yet. They also only show 1 commercial every few clips and its usually a self advertising one.

Join the future and save money while you can. One of the reasons its so cheap right now is because all the big networks and studios aren’t sold on streaming yet. They are still stuck in their broadcast on TV ways. As more and more people join up (I joined Hulu the day it opened, when it was still free, but gladly pay 8 bucks a month for all the content) you can expect a price increase at some point. Netflix recently raised all its prices and got some major fallout from consumers for it. It is still pretty cheap right now. So dive in! Make it work! If you’re trying to save some money or saving toward a goal, this is an excellent lifestyle change. This coming from a guy who grew up on cable tv all my life. I’ll never look back!

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Hobby #18 of 139 – Art! Life is so much better when we have an appreciation of art. You don’t need to go to school or even be talented to appreciate art. In fact, art in my opinion is even better when we discover something that wasn’t even intended to be “art” Take this picture above for example. This is in the paint section of an art store that someone just splashed on there so you could see how the paint blends. Nothing more than a sample. Its only half the size of the palm of your hand. But look at it! I just had to take a picture of it with my Nikon D3100. I always adore how well black and red go together. But notice the white as well! It really drives your eye even more to the center of the little painting.

To me when I see this, I see the “Eye of Sauron”. You know, that eye on top of the tower in Lord of the Rings that longs for the ring. It’s not obviously that, but that’s half the fun of appreciation art. It really is the little things in life. Life is better when you can enjoy the little things in life, such as hidden art gems.

Among my many hobbies (139 apparently) console gaming ranks at the top. This past year we had some MAJOR block busters release. Batman Arkham City, Skyrim, BattleField 3, Modern Warfare 3, Portal 2, Zelda, I mean the list goes on. But this year… This year is slim pickings. And even the “Blockbuster” games coming out still seem to leave an empty hole in my heart. Let’s take a look at Final Fantasy 13-2 for example.

Top 5 Reasons I’ll never play Final Fantasy 13-2

I buy video games to play, not watch a movie. FF13 had such massively long cut scenes! I only got half way through the game before I had had enough and returned it. Square Software…err…Enix, has really strayed from its roots of core game play. 13-2 is likely to have the same length cut scenes.

The Original FF13 was the most linear game I’ve ever played. Of course there is mainly one path to walk down, its a game. But no towns to explore? No mini games? no alternate paths? No world map? No freedom to just relax for a minute? No thanks.

FF-VII spoiled me. It was the first FF game I’ve ever played and still holds onto the title of “All time fav game” in my books.

Square has been losing public trust big time after they admitted FF13 could have been more polished and the utter failure of FF14

Unless it gets amazing reviews (And it only got an 8.0 on IGN. Gamespot.com review isn’t out yet but I’ll expect they’ll give a 7.5 ) I won’t have any motivation to finish the first one in order to play this sequel. I don’t feel right playing a sequel to a game I didn’t finish the first one, you know?

There you have it. My two cents before the game official comes out. Maybe I’m being too hard on the franchise, got second opinion? Leave a comment!

As a man (26) with a wife and baby on way, our whole financial situation is about to change. Forget money, our whole lives are about to change! No more sleeping in… No more buying random stuff for myself… No more quiet evenings as I decide what new hobby I will take on next. All those other things aside, money is still a big issue.

If you’re a parent, you know how expensive toys and such can be! I went to target recently and was blown away by how much they are charging for about 10oz of colored plastic they call a toy! See I’m having a daughter, so I already know I’m in trouble, because if she looks anything like her mom, I won’t be able to say no. Enter Michaels.

My wife and I went here this afternoon so she could walk around and hopefully have her water break. “Clean up on Isle 4.” Sadly that didn’t happen so we are still playing hot potato with those gallons of fluid in her belly ready to split out anywhere… probably my car 😦 Anyway, as we walked around we came upon an amazing section of the store. The dollar section. Now we’ve all been there before but this time it was different. This time we noticed all the amazing kiddy toys and baby stuff in this isle! We thought to ourselves how great it would be to take Zelda (Our little girls name is going to be Zelda, epic, I know) into this store.

Just think, we give her $10 dollars and tell her she can have anything she wants. Think of the gratitude! I would be her hero! I can hear it now, “Thank you daddy! Your amazing.” My wife was totally on board with this too, because she saw the prices for all that random junk at target too. Some people might feel bad for getting their kids stuff from the dollar section or from the dollar store. Bump that, I’d much rather spend 10 bucks on some cheap toys, but another 10 bucks in the bank for her college fund and then go to GameStop and get a little something for Daddy 🙂 I mean just take a look at these adorable little pink oven mits we found for a buck!! My wife couldn’t believe all the fantastic stuff there was. By the way, this is my beautiful, amazing, wonderful, godly wife in this photo. 39 weeks pregnant and she is still as hot as the day I married her. But that’s another topic for another day. Bottom line: You can save a lot of money on kids if you teach them to be grateful when they are young. They don’t know the first thing about name brands or any of that stuff. Take full advantage of the dollar sections until they start asking for Levi’s, Uggs, and who knows what. Oh well, off to one of my other 139 hobbies 🙂

Question: How have you saved money with your kids? How do you plan to save money with kids in the future if you don’t have any yet? LEAVE A COMMENT! Thanks!

So if you’ve been watching TV, Hulu, or Netflix, you’ve likely been bombarded with “The Sim, Free to Play!” commercials like I have. And well, after seeing a commercial numerous times I decided to submit to the mighty advertising and give it a try. I wasn’t a big fan of the mobile version. My wife, however, has spend hours upon hours on it already. She already has about six Sims and is looking to upgrade her house.

So obviously the first thing, like any normal person would do, she does is have her Sims look for jobs. She was highly frustrated to find out that once you send your Sims to work they are LITERALLY gone for 7 hours and return with only $135. She was devastated because at this rate she would never be able to remodel their houses with only the finest digital wallpaper Sims money could buy.

Upon fiddling around with other money making options in the game she discovers that if you buy a bag of seeds for $40, you can grow $300 of potatoes in a mere 2 hours! That’s a $260 profit! But this is where our story turns into something straight out of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. It always starts off innocent enough. But it always ends in horror…

She tells all the Sims to quit their jobs. She pools all their money together and buys a new plot of land with no house on it. She then plants 6 dirt patches and calls all the Sim’s over. Finally she commands each Sim to tirelessly working the field, 2 hours a a time to bring in $1,560 in just 2 hours instead of letting them have a social life and bathroom breaks at a real job which would only produce $918 (among the six of them) in 7 hours.

Notice my wife's Sims Slaving Farm. Complete with a fence on all sides. Also protected against anything that might hinder productivity: Tv, Computers, Chairs, Human Resources Department, Bathrooms breaks, Talking, Questioning their Supreme Leader... But they can have all the potato's they can eat*!

With all the wonderful major advances in medicine, bioengineering & the world’s connectedness, I think we can all agree we are but a few short years away from something going horribly wrong in a lab (probably in Europe) thus bringing on the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse. Are you ready?

A sign I saw in "Five Below" today. We laugh now, but one day these signs will replace "No Parking" signs.

This is a new hobby of mine. Preparing for these creatures was never really on my radar until a friend of mine, (who also has a gaming website, Confidant Gamers, check it out.) was driving in the car with me. We were talking about video games and the people we play with. Then the conversation took a turn, after mentioning another person he said, “He’s one of the people who would be on my team when the Zombie Apocalypse begins. You gotta have the right people with the right skills, for example…” The next 10 minutes revealed 3 things to me:

His thoroughness was unsettling. He had really thought this through!

His list made for a team of people that could rival the skills of “Seal Team Six“

I was not on this list…

What do I have to offer? Nothing! No skills worthy of fending off the undead. I would last a week at best. But no worries, I’ve got at least a few more years before the inevitable break out. I must figure out what skills I need to learn to become valuable in this new world. Being able to play guitar just won’t cut it, unless I equip that guitar with a semi-automatic?

All I know is that this sign in Five Blow that I took a picture of today was a chilling reminder that I need to get better at my Zombie Apocalypse skills if I’m going to survive. Archery Class here I come! Maybe… Unless I get distracted by something else. Leave a comment telling me how you are preparing!

What’s Up World! My name is Theo Davis and I’m a hobbyhalic. Very excited about the start of this Blog of mine. I’ve always wanted to do something like this, but it has been terribly difficult for me to narrow my blog down to one thing. Once I saw word press allowed me to create Categories it sparked the idea to blog about all the hobbies I love! And I love a ton! I’ve started 18 Categories today which I will slowly start to fill with posts.

Why 139?

Well… I have my reasons. But my goal is to name 139 hobbies to blog about and entertain the world 😀

The Goal?

Some day I would love to start an actual website, but for now blogging just makes sense. If you like a post PLEASE leave your thoughts! I would love to hear your feedback, it might prompt me to blog more about that particular topic. Well… Here we go!